Unlike the poster, I'm happy to put my name here. What I was objecting to was the hypocrisy of someone like Commissioner Suffredin, who has not been shy about raising the specter of 'friends and family' hiring in Cook County, even though his own brother got a job at the Forest Preserve -- an exempt position, like Ms. Dunnings, I might add -- from then-County board president Dick Phelan while Suffredin and Phelan where sharing law offices.

Same double standard with commissioner Peraica, who apparently can also have relatives on the payroll. Ms. Dunnings worked for the County for years before Mr. Stroger was elected president in the general election, holds an MBA from Northwestern, and yet was routinely castigated for her bloodlines. And re the hiring and subsequent firing of Mr. Cole for not honestly disclosing his criminal record on his job application -- a criminal record does not bar one from a County position, but lying about that criminal record does. Mr. Suffredin should know that, since he purports to support -- as does the County board president -- the Second Chance Act, which Mr. Suffredin's officemate Congresswoman Jan Shakowski, also supports. What's good for the goose is good for the gander, unless, apparently, you're Tony Peraica, Larry Suffredin or 'reform' commissioner and Ayn Rand fan Forrest Claypool, who served as Chicago mayor Richard Daley's chief of staff not once but twice and during his tenure as Chicago Park District head privatized union jobs and installed a 'fee'-based structure for park programs that have put dozens of park programs beyond the reach of low-income Chicago residents.

Meanwhile, Stroger rolls back a tax and is excoriated, while the 'reform' IL governor, Pat Quinn, moves to increase the state income tax (without, I must point out, even giving lip service to at least imposing a graduated tax rather than a flat tax) and gets cheers and applause from the local corporate news outlets. What’s wrong with this picture?

Last summer I advanced at the Gay Pride Parade for Stroger, and while the public response to Stroger was overwhelmingly positive, in no small part because he's taken a strong position on support for full equal rights for LGBTQ people, at least two white boys were not shy about telling this white girl that what the County REALLY needs is a white Irish male running the local operation. By all means, baste the Stroger administration for decisions you disagree with or decisions you think are stupid, including its policy of allowing people convicted of crimes to hold jobs, but let's cut the hypocrisy. Todd Stroger moved to sever a person from County service, even though that individual happens to be related to him, something neither the current Chicago mayor or any other known local politician has done in recent memory. He’s run an administration that, for better or worse, is vastly more open to public scrutiny and vastly more democratic than more than a few other local government agencies. He’s cut more than a thousand non-health jobs from the payroll and given up control over hundreds of jobs over which he previously had appointment power. At the same time, no-one seems inclined to scream about the political appointees on the payroll of other County officials like the Sheriff or the State’s Attorney, a double standard if ever there was one. Surely there's no crime in pointing out the double standard, which is exactly what you would have seen had the Tribune had the decency to run the whole clip.